Hello dear friends!
I haven't posted anything on my blog for a long time, but today this day has come. Yesterday I had to go to visit my friend in the city of Podolsk. I was there for the first time and the first thing I did was ask a friend to show the sights of the city in order to take interesting photos for review, before it got dark.
An unusual church crowned with a crown rises on a picturesque hill in the village of Dubrovitsy. The Temple of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos is a unique architectural monument of the late 17th - early 18th centuries and is included in the world treasury of architecture, is under the protection of UNESCO.
Until now, the names of the authors of this masterpiece are not known for certain, there is only unconfirmed information that masters from both Italy and Russia worked here. The creation of the iconostasis is attributed to the masters of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the influence of Western European iconography is noticeable on them.
The Church of the Sign is a gift from the educator of Peter I - Prince Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn to the Russian emperor. In 1689 Golitsyn fell out of favor. Peter was sent to his estate. The sovereign's anger passed rather quickly, and already in 1690, Boris Alekseevich was summoned to Moscow and bestowed boyar dignity on him. It is believed that it was as a sign of reconciliation with Peter I that the prince erected a new white-stone church in Dubrovitsy.
The construction of the temple was completed by 1699 or earlier, but five more years passed before its consecration - they were waiting for Peter himself, and until 1704 the emperor hardly visited Moscow. Also, the prince had to obtain permission to consecrate an unusual temple, built in the Baroque style and decorated in a European manner.
